Trump Visited A Black Church in Flint And Things Went As Badly As You’d Expect
Donald Trump is currently in the period of his presidential campaign where he’s trying to plug the holes in his voter base to win the election. One of those many, wide gaps is the black community. So, the Republican presidential candidate visited Flint, Michigan this week. His visit was…interesting.
As many would expect, Trump’s visit to a black church in Flint, Michigan was far from smooth sailing. While he was there to try and convince black voters that he would be the best president for them, he couldn’t help but try to get in some shots at Hillary Clinton’s expense. Which called for a reaction from the pastor of Bethel United Methodist Church.
“Mr. Trump, I invited you here to thank us for what we’ve done in Flint, not give a political speech,” said the Rev. Faith Green Timmons.
As Trump tried to get back on subject, his short, six-minute speech was brought to an abrupt ending after being heckled by members of the crowd with questions of his past discriminatory practices and how he plans to help Flint on its road to recovery.
[Related: Five things Black People Have to Lose from a Trump Presidency]
Before the speech, Bethel United released a statement making it clear that Trump’s visit was in no way an endorsement.
“What we pray is that it conveys a fine example of a faithful, intelligent, historically African-American congregating at work, serving and volunteering among the people of Flint as we work through this crisis of national impact,” the statement said, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. “We cannot let this story drift from national attention for any reason.”
Trump went into the event with realistic expectations about how many of those attending would be voting for him, or not.
“Some people in those communities aren’t planning on voting for me and that’s OK — I will be the president for all Americans,” Trump said in front of the crowd. “I’m running to bring hope to Flint.”
It’s worth noting that these recent attempts could be more about convincing undecided voters that he isn’t racist, while not losing his arguably racist base, than it is about winning over minority voters.
To perfectly summarize how the trip went, here’s a picture of Trump standing next to a clearly uncomfortable Little Miss Flint. As the wise people say, kids know best.
This amazing photo of Trump and "Little Miss Flint" has gone viral on Flint Facebook. pic.twitter.com/0exFO0MCZw
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) September 15, 2016